Necktie Essentials

A necktie is by no means the simplest piece in men’s fashion. Guys can go wearing one for years yet never learn to actually ‘own’ the item. Whether it was a $15 bargain or a high-end $150 designer dud, a tie will look out of place unless you actually know how to wear it and make it your own. It’s these little style details that distinguish the temp from the manager-to-be, the fully dressed guy from the debonair connoisseur. The Art: Mix and Match Find a shirt that will go with a red and white striped tie. It sounds easy, but too many men go around pairing neckties and shirts at random. That kind of haphazard matching might satisfy the dress code at work, but is sure to fall far short of the rules of style. Learning to pair the neckties and shirts takes time; there’s just no getting around it. You can’t shortcut the whole process of studying the color wheel, discovering which colors contrast and complement each other, and which patterns should go with what. One way to speed things up is to enlist the help of a more style-aware friend, male or female. That way, you get personalized advice that no book or magazine would be able to provide. Matching Your Body Believe it or not, there’s no one tie that will suit everyone. Like most things in fashion, there’s a prescribed ‘fit’ or size of necktie for you depending on your bulk. You work with both your outfit and your body each time you do up that half Windsor. Neckties nowadays come in a variety of widths ranging from the pencil-thin skinny to dishcloth-scale wide. Just because they’re being sold in stores, however, doesn’t mean that they’re viable options; neither extreme is, in fact, a good option. The safest widths lie somewhere in the range of two and three inches. Anything less than that is too thin to be classic, while anything greater would be too wide to be sensible. Make your choice of width appropriate to your body. A slimmer frame calls for a width that’s just as small, while a bulkier build requires a tie that’s similarly hefty. By keeping all the sizes in sync, you increase the success factor of your outfit as a whole. Know Knots One of the most basic things you should know about neck ties is how to tie one. Heaven forbid that you wear one of those pre-tied, slip-on elastic ones so favored by the under-16 and prom-age market. A real man ought to be able to do up his own knot by himself before being allowed to wear this most traditional of fashion details. There are dozens of technically possible knots, and there are about a dozen ones popular around the world. If you must pick one, however, choose to master the four in hand over anything else. Of all the knots in existence, it’s the most versatile since its medium sized knot works with most collars, body types, tie widths and lengths. Whether you’re going to work or a first date, it’s the one knot that’s sure to work with whatever outfit you wear. If tying a tie is something foreign to you then please have a look at our tutorial on How to Tie a Necktie. A subtle difference exists between simply having a tie in your outfit and fully wearing one, in every sense of the word. There’s a certain amount of practice and know-how to really owning your necktie, but the effort also has a very big payoff. Other Suggested Readings From Our Blog: Necktie Fashion Faux Pas A Look at OurPopular Black Ties

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